M.Tech in Geographic Information Systems (GIS)

The Need for GIS Programme

India is on a path of progress and growth. India requires a different information regime to arm itself for a trillion-level economy. The same will be powered by very efficient national information systems like GIS that will be the foundation for the governing and the governed. This will lead to assessment of development needs, bridging disparity and gaps, bringing equity & transparency, inclusivity and citizen participation.

The Central Government of India, thus, plans to expand research and development in geospatial technologies under the National GIS Programme – a nationwide GIS that will support all sectors of governance, enterprise and citizens. It is thus a fundamental component of India’s planning and developmental infrastructure, providing visibility into various aspects of the national economic, governance and developmental processes, enterprise commerce and citizen participation.

This will create a huge demand for high quality GIS professionals and researchers. It is being envisaged that the strength of the GIS workforce will have to increase manifold to meet the demand. NIIT University (NU) giving due regard to this issue offers an M.Tech Programme in GIS with active involvement of the GIS industry in India and abroad.

About the M.Tech GIS Programme

NU believes that partnerships with global organisations are a necessity to keep the GIS curriculum and facilities updated. As a result, the NU M.Tech GIS Programme is offered with support from Esri Inc., California, USA- the world’s leading organisation in the development of GIS software and Esri India. Several other GIS organisations involved in GIS development and its application in India and abroad are also expected to join and support this unique research-driven and industry-linked programme in the near future. Meritorious students also receive support in terms of scholarships sponsored by Esri Inc. California.

The Programme enables professionals to start a challenging and rewarding career in the rapidly emerging area of GIS. Professionals pursuing this programme get a comprehensive exposure to GIS components like Geospatial Modelling and Database, Cartography, GIS Programming, Remote Sensing for GIS and relevant elective courses like GIS and Urban Planning, Advanced GIS Platform Programming (Mobile, Web and Cloud), Geoinformatics for Environment, etc. The Programme focuses on spatial visualization, technology and applications of GIS, GPS fundamentals and techniques, Geospatial Project Management and field techniques like exploring Geospatial nature of regions, economy, demography, occupation profile, applications of GIS for humanities, and more. Graduates become fully prepared for positions as GIS Project Managers, Application Specialists, System Engineers and GIS Business Development Managers. They also have the option of pursuing Doctoral Research at NU.

Key Differentiators

Innovative Pedagogy

The Programme is designed to serve professional development at the workplace and hence, is characterised by the pedagogic innovation of education-work linkage. The new pedagogy is based on the insight that the workplace also generates a continuous learning environment. Academic instruction components such as lectures, tutorials, practicals and projects are integrated with business objectives, leading to work-based instruction components. The Programme is a perfect blend of curriculum, entailing classroom sessions, virtual classroom, internship and knowledge & skills in GIS area with strong industry practice and novel research. The Programme is uniquely designed to provide academic competencies, workplace competencies, industry-wide technical competencies, industry-sector technical competencies and management competencies.

Creative Structure

This 2-year long programme consists of 4 semesters with 72 credits. The courses are categorised into Core (Remote Sensing and Image Processing, GIS Programming, Advanced Programming, etc.), Professional Electives (to gain proficiency in respective domain areas), Internship (to build linkage with Industry-work or Industry-oriented research, seamlessness with the world of work).

The first three semesters are devoted to theoretical and hands-on laboratory training of core and advanced GI Science and GI technology courses. The last semester is for Industrial Internship where students will be working on real-life projects leading to the completion of the programme. Thus, the M.Tech programme is the sum total of education measures undertaken to develop industry-ready GIS professionals. The overwhelming emphasis, therefore, is to ensure that all students 'Learn to Learn'.

Technology-based Seamless Delivery

To enable students to pursue the M. Tech Programme alongside their work, the Programme design includes two delivery components:

• On-campus Component- NU firmly believes that experiential hands-on learning should be an integral part of all its courses. Students spend an entire year in the campus to carry out laboratory work. NU’s Laboratories are designed more in the form of Industry Innovation Centres rather than just the laboratories. Further, the activities are designed as mini-projects than isolated exercises.
• Virtual Classroom Component- NU has fully equipped web-conferencing studios to enable two-way interaction with its students located anywhere on the globe. This component is used to deliver lectures and carry out one-to-one student mentoring and guiding, as well as interacting with industry-supervisors in the fourth semester.

World-Renowned Mentors

NU’s core faculty members are great mentors and have a considerable portfolio of intellectual output to their credit. NU faculty members have been responsible for creating innovative pedagogies and technology-enabled learning products. The team also has a large number of publications in reputed peer-reviewed international journals and the proceedings of international conferences and. Apart from the core faculty, NU also has a vast network of global professionals drawn from the industry and academia who participate actively in the Programme.

List of Professional Core Courses in GIS

• Cartography and Photogrammetry
• Remote Sensing and Digital Image Processing
• GIS, Geospatial Databases and Technology Trend
• GIS Programming
• Geostatistics, Geocomputation and Spatial Analysis
• Advanced Remote Sensing and Digital Photogrammetry
• Advanced GIS Programming
• Geospatial Field Techniques and Application Integration

List of Professional Elective Courses in GIS

• Geoinformatics for Environment
• GIS for Humanities and Social Science
• GIS for Monitoring Natural Resource and Environmental Impacts
• Mobile GIS